In September 1994, Congress passed the landmark, bipartisan Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), a law that saved and transformed countless lives. After the passage of VAWA, the rate of intimate partner violence against both women and men declined more than 50% between 1993 and 2008 according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. (Catalano SM. Intimate Partner violence, 1993–2010. Bureau of Justice Statistics. U.S. Department of Justice, 2012).
Enacting VAWA marked the first time that the federal government recognized the leadership role it must play in ending gender-based violence. The law provides federal resources for a coordinated response to ending domestic and sexual violence, bringing together advocates from across movements and providing funding for local, state, and national programs to give survivors a safety net, no matter where they live or where they may be on their journey to safety and justice.
But the work had only begun in 1994. The Violence Against Women Act must be renewed by Congress every five years, creating an opportunity for lawmakers, service providers, and the American public to assess what has worked and where we’ve fallen short, strengthen the law based on what we’ve learned, and recommit to ending gender-based violence in all its forms.
VAWA has since been reauthorized four times, adding much-needed protections for immigrant survivors, Native women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other groups. Tahirih is proud to have been part of these legislative negotiations over the years as a member of the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, advocating for the needs of immigrant survivors of gender-based violence.
Tahirih’s Role & VAWA’s Impact on Immigrant Survivors of Gender-Based Violence
From VAWA’s first passage in 1994, lawmakers recognized that immigrant survivors of gender-based violence are at high risk of abuse and sexual assault and face unique barriers to accessing services and legal protections. Thanks to VAWA, Tahirih and other service providers have received federal funds to provide these specialized and accessible services to immigrants.
During VAWA’s first reauthorization in 2000, Tahirih was part of consultations that helped create two new types of visas for immigrant survivors, T visas for survivors of human trafficking and U visas for survivors of serious crimes, including domestic violence. Tahirih then pioneered the use of both visas, becoming one of the very first organizations to secure T and U visas for survivors in 2003 and 2008 respectively.
These legal protections have helped thousands of immigrant women and survivors of gender-based violence access safety and stability in the United States. Countless lives have been changed, if not saved, by these forms of humanitarian relief. We continue to advocate to strengthen and secure these programs so they are available to survivors for years to come.
Tahirih Senior Immigration Policy Counsel Irena Sullivan, who originally joined Tahirih in 1997, said, “Prior to 2000, I remember telling clients who had survived horrible violence in the U.S. that there was nothing I could do to help them. Several had U.S. citizen children who were thriving here – deportation meant either uprooting their children or leaving them here without them. It was heartbreaking, particularly after they had endured so much trauma. Once the visas were created, it felt almost too good to be true, as if new life was breathed into our work.”
In the 2005 VAWA reauthorization, Tahirih successfully advocated for new provisions regulating the international marriage broker industry, guaranteeing foreign fiancés and spouses’ access to important information on the domestic violence and criminal history of their U.S. spouses and fiancés.
In 2022, Tahirih also celebrated the historic inclusion of forced marriage in VAWA for the very first time. This recognition – that forced marriage can and does happen in the United States – represents a major step forward towards making this often-hidden form of abuse visible. The law mandated that the Department of Justice produce a report analyzing inconsistencies between states’ minimum marriage age and age-based sex offenses and paved the way for the first ever federal grant to provide training and technical assistance on forced marriage in the United States. Tahirih’s Forced Marriage Initiative is now the first, and only, federally-funded expert program on the topic of forced marriage through our grant from the Office on Violence Against Women, providing nationwide training and technical assistance.
Improving VAWA’s Legacy for the Future
The impact of VAWA on individual survivors and the broader movement to end gender-based violence over the last 30 years has been tremendous. Reducing the rate of domestic violence in the U.S. by more than 50% between 1993 and 2008 is an incredible achievement.
For individual immigrant survivors like our client Brenda, the protections and resources provided through VAWA have been life changing. After being separated from her daughter and sex trafficked into the United States, she found the strength to escape and, with Tahirih’s support, received a U visa, enabling her and her daughter to begin a new life in safety.
While the impact of VAWA on survivors and and those that serve them deserves to be celebrated, our work is not done. While many VAWA programs have evolved and expanded over the years, protections for immigrant survivors enshrined years ago have lacked long-term investment and are struggling to meet the need.
“All of us and our communities are safer when every survivor – regardless of their immigration status – has the support and protection they need to report harm and get safe,” said Casey Carter Swegman, Director of Public Policy. “Tahirih remains committed to advocating for improvements to these programs so that all immigrant survivors have equitable access to safety and justice.”
We envision a world where VAWA For All truly means VAWA For All and we are working every day to make that promise a reality.
